Mini Mock

Liesbet Van-Zoonen argues that media language encodes how male and female characters act in media products. Explore how representations position the audience in Humans and Les Revenants

The representation, how a group or issue is presented, of both male and female genders is encoded by the use of media language, for example. the scenes lighting, mise-en-scene and music. This representation can be accepted by the audience in terms of a dominant reading, alternatively, the audience can completely oppose this representation by taking an oppositional reading. However, most audiences mostly accept and agree with the representation and only disagree with certain aspects. This is made clear in a theory of reception by Stuart Hall. Both Les Revenants and Humans use media language to encode representation of its characters in certain key scenes such as in the scene in Les Revenants where Viktor follows Julie home, the scene where a woman, Lucy, is stabbed in the underpass, and the scene in Humans where Leo enters the brothel. Les Revenants is a TV supernatural drama with elements of the horror genre created by Fabrice Gobert in 2012 in France on the network Canal+. Additionally, Humans is a science fiction drama created by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley based on the Swedish series Real Humans. Humans was first released in the UK in 2015 on Channel 4.

Liesbit Van-Zoonen's theory that gender, and therefore the representations of that gender, is constructed through media language is evident in the scene in Les Revenants where Viktor follows Julie home. This is because non-diegetic sound is used in the form of eerie and creepy music that builds suspense and has connotations to the horror genre meaning that the show Les Revenants includes genre hybridity of the horror genre as well as the supernatural genre. (This is most likely to appeal to a wider audience). This means that the audience feels as if they are watching a horror movie and therefore is expecting something bad to happen. This is a proairetic code as the audience is expecting something to happen. This accompanied with the lowkey lighting of the street lamps at night represent Julie as a stereotypical female in this scene because she is portrayed as vulnerable even through Viktor is just a child. Furthermore, this media language shows Viktor as being the stereotypical, hegemonic male despite the fact that he is a child because he is following a woman home in the dark. This references many TV dramas that depict a woman being taken advantage of a night and therefore makes the audience think of Viktor as being the untrustworthy male. This means that it can be argued that the audience would have a negotiated reading to this scene because most audiences would be ready to accept the fact that a man would follow a woman home at night but people may oppose this as Viktor is only a child. However, she could also be seen as being atypical of her gender in this scene and this is encoded by media language. This is because although the scene is trying to portray her as vulnerable with the lighting, music and venue (she lives in a grey, quiet area of flats which could be seen as a threatening area) she does not look very frightened or anxious in any way. This is atypical of a woman because we would assume that the woman would be afraid and defenceless in this situation and this is shown by media language because she is not wearing any make up meaning that she is unconventionally beautiful and she wears baggy clothes. This difference in appearance shows that she is not a typical female figure.

Les Revenants also includes a scene where Lucy is stabbed in the underpass by a serial killer 

Additionally, the scene in Humans when Leo enters the brothel to meet with Niska demonstrates that media language encodes how male and female characters act in media products because Leo is wearing what can be perceived as scruffy, dirty clothes that could be typical of a man going into a brothel. Furthermore, the lighting inside the brothel is very conventionally sexual because it is quite dim but lit with neon pink lights. This encodes how the woman including Niska is perceived in the media product because the lighting accompanied with their clothes (extremely revealing clothes of a sexual nature) makes it obvious that they are their to provide a sex service to whomever comes in. Most audiences would completely accept this representation and would therefore have a dominant reading of the scene because the fact that woman are constantly referred to in media products as sexual figures (according to Liesbit Van-Zoonen woman's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences) people are used to women being represented this way and would accept it. Additionally, the clothing and lighting effects how the characters act because Niska is dancing provocatively in the scene. It is clear that the media language is enforcing how she acts because as soon as Niska is alone with Leo she reverts to being how she would usually be. 

To conclude, I would say that Van-Zoonen is correct in saying that media language effects how a male or female is represented in a media product.